October 31, 1:35 pm in Portland is October 31, 8:35 pm in GMT.November 1, 9:05 am in Frankfurt is November 1, 8:05 am in GMT.

That would imply that the flight was 11.5 hours long. But we know that the flight is supposed to be 10.5 hours long. So I think the plane's scheduled departure was really 2:35 pm. This would be consistent with seeing Matty having a wirstwatch time that says 1:50 pm before beginning his trip.

Chateau, I can say based on recent research because I thought the same problem might be happening. European Summer Time (same as daylight time) in Germnay changed from that to Standard time (6 hours delta to U.S. East Coast and 9 hours delta on West Coast) on Oct. 26. As far as AR14 goes, only on the date of Nov. 1 departure from the U.S. would there be a an extraordinary result. On Nov. 1 a plane takes off in Daylight time and lands in Germany with only a 8 hour time difference instead of the normal 9 hours that apply from Nov. 2 until European Summer Time returns the end of March 2009). The regular 10.5 hour flight would be arriving Nov. 2 only at 805am rather than the normal 905am all other days. Airlines typically do not adjust their departure ties for a 1 day event.

Yes, ROMANIA! Was at the arrivals area at the airport in Bucharest last night, at about 12:45am, waiting for a friend to come through baggage claim. Suddenly a man with a large videocamera appeared out of nowhere and stood waiting in front of the crowd at the automatic doors. I wondered if it would be someone important, but figured just a local soccer celebrity or something. A few seconds later an Asian couple with backpacks came running through the doors. They seemed to be looking for something and very rushed, and the cameraman followed them as they ran behind me and out the doors to the outside world. My very first thought was AMAZING RACE?!?! And then when I heard them talking to each other in English as they passed, with American accents, I thought it was an even greater chance it had been AR . . . but sadly, I'd never know the truth.

Or would I?!? Few minutes later two girls, looked to be in their 20s, came running out shouting at the crowd asking where the taxis were. Then suddenly they both stopped, looked around very confused-like like they were looking for someone, then stood off to the side a bit, literally about two feet from me. I noticed right away that they both had little yellow and red-striped markers on them, so I was getting even more convinced this was AR. Then while they were waiting, one of them took out an envelope and pulled out of it a blue pamphlet-sized type thing that had the AR symbol on the front, consulted it really quickly, then tucked it away. Now I'm 100% convinced it's AR!! All of a sudden there was a huge flurry of activity as their camerman came running up (apparently that's what the two girls had been waiting for), and then I saw at least two other teams and their camera crews come running through the doors - one was two slightly older African American ladies, and another was two rather short men. All four of them also had the yellow and red markers on their person (some were on fanny packs), and were being chased by cameras as they frantically ran for the taxis. I *think* there was another team arriving a little further down, but I couldn't get a good look in all the excitement. Then last but not least, a very frantic-looking cameraman and sound man ran out in the clearing outside the automatic doors, apparently having lost their team for the moment, and paused scanning the crowd for a good minute or two. Then they took off, so presumably spotted them. Phew.

It gets better. About a half hour later my friend finally came through the double-doors from baggage claim. I was giddy with excitment to tell her about my AR spotting, and her response? "So THAT'S who they were!!" Apparently they were on her flight from Munich! At least some of them were. She was sitting right next to one of the contestants, my friend said she was a Kelly Ripa lookalike. This contestant had another friend sitting up a few rows, who she kept referring to as Chrissy. My friend said they made small talk throughout the flight, and the lady had said she and her friend were making a travel documentary, going to places off the beaten path like Romania to try and generate interest for tourists to go to those countries. So THAT'S their cover! The lady also told the flight attendant that she and her friend Chrissy are Southwest Airlines flight attendants back home. She was also asking a Romanian passenger on the other side of her for advice, my friend didn't catch all of it but did hear them talking about the train station (how to get there, safety, etc). My friend said after the fact, knowing it was an AR team, a lot of the lady's mysterious behavior now made sense: Spending half an hour putting on makeup before they landed (after midnight?!?), asking the flight attendant for an extra sandwich (Chrissy had told her they might need it tomorrow!), etc. My friend said that by the time the plane was ready to deboard, the Kelly Ripa lookalike and her friend Chrissy (and their telltale backpacks) had already worked themselves up to the front of the plane to deboard. She said she also had noticed one other team of two girls with backpacks and camera crews, which I suspect *may* have been the pair I saw stalled outside baggage claim, but not sure.

Soooo, long and short of it: At least two teams were for sure spotted by my friend on the flight from Munich to Bucharest; I spotted at least four teams coming thru baggage claim at about that time, one of which might have overlapped with the ones my friend spotted. They were heading for taxis, so not sure if that means a task in Bucharest, or if they were taxing to the train station to venture elsewhere in the country. Making it at least five or six teams here in Romania today! How exciting!! I live not far from Dracula's Castle, which I'd suspect will be one of their stops, so I'll be keeping an eye out for any more sightings!

Sorry for the ramble, but I've been a huge AR fan since Season 1, Episode 1, and all this time I've been really pulling for them to come to Romania - what are the odds I'd see them arriving at the airport here, especially at 12:45am on a Wednesday?!? Can't wait for this season to air!!

Thank you so much for sharing!! Is it too much to hope you might have gotten some pics?

And could you possibly tell us the flight your friend was on? That would be a huge help!!

What fun!!

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"Our fans are pretty good. They don't give away too much. Sometimes people love dropping spoilers, but our fans are good. They tend to do it in such a way that doesn't ruin it for fans who don't want to know."--Phil Keoghan

Thanks for the welcome! The annoying thing is I always - ALWAYS! - carry my camera around with me here. Romania is such a quirky country you never know what you might see that needs to be photographed to be believed! But of course this was the one time I left it at home. It was the middle of the night so didn't think there'd be anything photoworthy. Grrrr. Yes, I'm kicking myself.

Friend was on Lufthansa flight 3424, arrived about 12:25am 11/5 from Munich. The flight arriving right before that was from Frankfort, arriving at 12:15am - both from Germany, so possibly some of the teams I saw had been on that flight? Not sure. Just because my friend only spotted two teams on the Munich flight doesn't mean they weren't all on that flight and she just didn't see them. She's still in bed and jet-lagged right now (she'd flown all the way from LA), but I'll grill her for more info later and see if there's any other tidbits I can report. This is all so exciting, I'm glad I've got people to share it with who can appreciate it!

Oh thank you that's great!! And you are definitely in the right place, we adore the race here!

Any more info on teams, even what they were wearing, while you and your friend's memories are clear is a huge help, as it may help us put things together as we get more info.

See if she knows the other girl's name? And anything she can add to what they were asking about will be a big help too!

And please do keep an eye out! If they arrived at 1225, they will prob have hit hours of operations somewhere--so prob did tasks that AM and then had a Pitstop.

SO if you can ask around, maybe someone saw something?

What time is it there for you right now??

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"Our fans are pretty good. They don't give away too much. Sometimes people love dropping spoilers, but our fans are good. They tend to do it in such a way that doesn't ruin it for fans who don't want to know."--Phil Keoghan

Oh wait--is that still THIS day? As in arr 1225 11/5 so might still be wandering around??

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"Our fans are pretty good. They don't give away too much. Sometimes people love dropping spoilers, but our fans are good. They tend to do it in such a way that doesn't ruin it for fans who don't want to know."--Phil Keoghan

Romaniafan--when you say last night--did your friend arrive at 1245 on 11/5 or on 11/4??

Were you hanging out waiting for her for a long time? You say finally she arrived...

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"Our fans are pretty good. They don't give away too much. Sometimes people love dropping spoilers, but our fans are good. They tend to do it in such a way that doesn't ruin it for fans who don't want to know."--Phil Keoghan

Yeah, it was 12:25am on Wed Nov 5th that they landed. So I'd bet money on them still flitting around the country as we speak, especially taking into account that like you said, they probably needed to wait for things to open first. It's 11:20am here at the moment, and we're 8 hours ahead of Chicago time (that's my hometown and point of reference!). And yes, I said finally because a. I'd left for the airport three hours before, b. Knew we'd have a 2+ hour drive home, and c. I wanted to talk to somebody about my AR sightings!!! In a perfect world my friend would've come through the doors at the same time as them and we could've tailed them! I guess it pays to travel with backpacks and not have to wait 20 minutes for your luggage to come through.

Speculation: If they go to Dracula's Castle (which incidentally isn't that exciting at all and is barely tied to Dracula, but is Romania's Biggest Tourist Trap so something tells me they'll end up there, but I hope I'm wrong - there are so many more interesting things to choose from here!), it's a good three hours drive/train from Bucharest in daytime traffic, a bit shorter at night. So if they had an early morning task in Bucharest, had to wait for opening hours for something first and then complete the task, then get out here, it'd probably be lunchtime at the earliest. Maybe they'd make a stop along the way to do something physically-challengey in the mountains? May need to kick the friend out of bed soon so we can get over there and stalk! With cameras this time, of course

As for them supposedly being in Capetown right now - my apologies if I'm wrong about all of this! But between the red and yellow markings, and what most definitely appeared to be an AR clue they were looking at, and all the pairs of backpacked running people tailed by cameras . . . if I'm wrong, someone out there is doing a mighty good job of filming an Amazing Race knockoff!

Shall give more details later if I get them, I'm spreading the word to everyone to keep an eye out!

Thanks romaiafan! I would think they might avoid the obvious too--wish you were in Bucharest to nose around! But something will turn up and you have done a great job with telling us all the details of your encounter-

And Cape Town doesn't look so good to me now,

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"Our fans are pretty good. They don't give away too much. Sometimes people love dropping spoilers, but our fans are good. They tend to do it in such a way that doesn't ruin it for fans who don't want to know."--Phil Keoghan

Haha, trust me, one doesn't want to spend any more time in Bucharest than absolutely necessary! Here's hoping they spend most of their time elsewhere in this beautiful country! Oh, remembered one last tidbit: One of the girls my friend saw was wearing a t-shirt with a picture of her daughter on it. I'll check back in tonight with any other newsworthy news!

Would that make Romania Leg 3? Given the late afternoon arrivals at Locarno, it would most likely encompass a 'draw a time and wait for the next morning' bit, making the Pit Stop sometime on the 2nd of November.

Add a 12-hour Pit Stop and you get a morning of the 3rd departure. A one-day Leg Two, followed by another 12-hour Pit Stop, gives you arrival in Munich on the night of the 4th.

Alternatively, add a 36-hour Pit Stop, and you get a morning of the 4th departure. We'd test this scenario (36h Pit Stop, then Locarno > Zurich > Munich > Bucharest).

If teams depart before 8am from Locarno, they'd be able to take:Train from Locarno to Zurich Airport: 8.53am to 12.13pmLH3743 from Zurich to Munich: 1.10pm to 2.10pmRO312 from Munich to Bucharest: 4.45pm to 7.45pm

They instead take the next Munich-Bucharest flight at 9.30pm, indicating that they'd check in after 8pm in Leg One. After half a leg on 1 Nov, would we have activities in Locarno on 2 Nov dragging into the night? I'd say doubtful.

ETA: Assuming Locarno is Leg One. But if it isn't, please just add X to the leg number!

« Last Edit: November 09, 2008, 07:11:44 AM by Neobie »

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Found out that Neobie in Chinese means "f*king awesome"! No, really. Look it up!

Would that make Romania Leg 3? Given the late afternoon arrivals at Locarno, it would most likely encompass a 'draw a time and wait for the next morning' bit, making the Pit Stop sometime on the 2nd of November.

Add a 12-hour Pit Stop and you get a morning of the 3rd departure. A one-day Leg Two, followed by another 12-hour Pit Stop, gives you arrival in Munich on the night of the 4th.

Alternatively, add a 36-hour Pit Stop, and you get a morning of the 4th departure. We'd test this scenario (36h Pit Stop, then Locarno > Zurich > Munich > Bucharest).

If teams depart before 8am from Locarno, they'd be able to take:Train from Locarno to Zurich Airport: 8.53am to 12.13pm

LH3743 from Zurich to Munich: 1.10pm to 2.10pmRO312 from Munich to Bucharest: 4.45pm to 7.45pm

They instead take the next Munich-Bucharest flight at 9.30pm, indicating that they'd check in after 8pm in Leg One. After half a leg on 1 Nov, would we have activities in Locarno on 2 Nov dragging into the night? I'd say doubtful.

ETA: Assuming Locarno is Leg One. But if it isn't, please just add X to the leg number!

Neobie, it may be more useful to work backward from the known arrival time. There is only one flight from Munich that fits:

LH3424 MUC OTP 2130 0025+1

If you connect to that from Frankfurt(which you wouldn't; see below), best choice is LH980 FRA MUC 1835 1930. from Milan(possible if leg 2 is in the Milan area) it would be LH3907 MXP MUC 1920 2030.From Zurich there is a nonstop flight to Bucharest in the early afternoon, but no connecting flights getting in just after midnight.

However, Munich is not the only city from which you can arrive in Bucharest in the 30 minutes after midnight. 3 others that I know of are Prague OK704 2120 0010+1, Frankfurt itself LH3416 2030 0005+1, and Amsterdam KL1361 2020 0010+1.

By connecting just early enough in any of these 4 gateways to Bucharest, a wealth of other cities could connect into one of the late-night flights to Bucharest.

After giving the question of where leg 2 might be serious thought, I think the best urban area possibilities are:MilanVeniceViennaBudapest

An evening flight originating in Milan is covered in my post above.From Venice LH4101 connects to Munich 1725 1845.From Vienna LH6337 connects to Frankfurt 1940 2120.Budapest is the city with the most nonstops to Bucharest. However, there are none in the late evening.

I was in Bucharest and all over Transylvania in early August. I learned a few things that might be applicable to an AR14 leg there. The one place I think most likely to be invovled in a task is the Parliament Palace. This is the second largest building in the world(after the Pentagon), according to the tour guide with over 500,000 square meters (5.0 million square feet, but I have also seen in print the number 330,000 square meters). There are 1100 rooms, so a find "x" task could be quite ineresting and difficult. There are regular tours, but I bet it could have been arranged to use only the parts of building (most of it) not used for showing tourists.

Another really interesting place is Peles Castle in Sinaia about 2 hours north on a low-traffic day. It's a beautiful building and I hope AR14 planners at World Race Productions found a way to fit it in.

Grrr, kept eyes peeled all day and no more AR sightings in my little corner of Transylvania. Sorry guys. I was really enjoying feeling useful and having info to share! Camping out at the departures area was considered, Michael (seriously!), but unfortunately probably won't happen. And apskp - we had made the same prediction ourselves this afternoon about the People's Palace being a filming location in Buc. I've always felt that even finding an address among the jungle of concrete blocs would be an AR-worthy task, too! As for Peles, would be cool but it's closed all of November for cleaning and maintenance. I suppose anything's possible, though!

One last little tidbit: My friend said the racer sitting next to her on the plane had mentioned that others "from our group" had been on an earlier flight that day. Maybe these were just the stragglers? And as I may have already mentioned, she was wearing a t-shirt with a picture of her daughter that said "I love you wherever I go". Think that's it for now!

Grrr, kept eyes peeled all day and no more AR sightings in my little corner of Transylvania. Sorry guys. I was really enjoying feeling useful and having info to share! Camping out at the departures area was considered, Michael (seriously!), but unfortunately probably won't happen. And apskp - we had made the same prediction ourselves this afternoon about the People's Palace being a filming location in Buc. I've always felt that even finding an address among the jungle of concrete blocs would be an AR-worthy task, too! As for Peles, would be cool but it's closed all of November for cleaning and maintenance. I suppose anything's possible, though!

One last little tidbit: My friend said the racer sitting next to her on the plane had mentioned that others "from our group" had been on an earlier flight that day. Maybe these were just the stragglers? And as I may have already mentioned, she was wearing a t-shirt with a picture of her daughter that said "I love you wherever I go". Think that's it for now!

Doesn't mean you have to leave us romaniafan, we'd love to have you stick around and see how all this unfolds

Grrr, kept eyes peeled all day and no more AR sightings in my little corner of Transylvania. Sorry guys. I was really enjoying feeling useful and having info to share! Camping out at the departures area was considered, Michael (seriously!), but unfortunately probably won't happen. And apskp - we had made the same prediction ourselves this afternoon about the People's Palace being a filming location in Buc. I've always felt that even finding an address among the jungle of concrete blocs would be an AR-worthy task, too! As for Peles, would be cool but it's closed all of November for cleaning and maintenance. I suppose anything's possible, though!

One last little tidbit: My friend said the racer sitting next to her on the plane had mentioned that others "from our group" had been on an earlier flight that day. Maybe these were just the stragglers? And as I may have already mentioned, she was wearing a t-shirt with a picture of her daughter that said "I love you wherever I go". Think that's it for now!

People, when I joined last week pointing out it's been a while since they've been to Switzerland I was just joking!

This post above caught my eye - I've been to Verzasca valley myself on an excursion during my time as geology student at the Swiss federal institute of technology in Zurich.

There's Lago di Vogrono, a reservoir lake and the dam bordering its end, Dam Verzasca was featured in a James Bond Movie ("Goldeneye"). 007 does a bungy-jump from that dam, which is a very popular thing to do among tourists! There's not really anything else thrilling going on in that valley (except for geology of course ) so I'll pick up that spoiler/speculation and, if correct, guess we'll see some bungee jumping as a task or a maybe even a roadblock?

I'd love to extend this and post pictures of the dam and the valley (and the site of the jump itself), but I don't have them with me so you'll have to wait until I'm heading to Innsbruck again.